


Queer Without a Cause (except, yeah, we kinda do)

by Kymopoleia



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Even fucking Bianca, Everyone's alive, Human AU, M/M, Their moms met at bingo night and are trying to set them up au, Trans AU, We’re both in the high school’s QSA but are you the queer part or the straight part au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-08
Updated: 2015-06-08
Packaged: 2018-04-03 09:50:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,401
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4096438
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kymopoleia/pseuds/Kymopoleia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Percy gets invited/forced to come to his school's Queer-Straight Alliance meeting, and kinda maybe ends up loving it. And he kinda maybe ends up loving someone there, because what's high school if you don't fuck up and like the wrong person sometimes?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Queer Without a Cause (except, yeah, we kinda do)

Percy wouldn’t have gone to the GSA meeting (QSA, he was constantly reminded, but he really didn’t care enough to find the Q on his keyboard to type it out or put the effort into saying it) if it weren’t for Grover Underwood.

Grover Underwood was his best friend and the coolest vegetarian enchilada-enthusiast in the entirety of their high school. He had dark skin and a farmer’s tan beyond that from all the time spent out and about with his cute girlfriend Juniper (who he’s been with for like six years now or something, and Percy swears they’re going to get married in some clearing in a forest where they get bit by mosquitoes and then move to some new age hippie camp where they don’t wear shirts or bras and have kids that actually know how to make flower crowns together). He’s never seen without his Rasta cap, but he has this mass of curly brown hair poking out, and Percy digs Grover’s everything. He’s a funny dude with too-hairy legs and way too many feelings about trees and the environment, and he’s the secretary of their school’s GSA club (Percy, shut up, it’s QSA).

Percy doesn’t actually know which part Grover is, but he doesn’t care, because even if Grover were his type, he still wouldn’t touch him. They’ve known each other since they were roughly eleven and Grover’s too much like a brother to Percy for anything between them to be considered anything but gross (including the one totally platonic spin-the-bottle kiss at Chris and Clarisse’s last spring when they were both drunk, because tonguing your best friend in front of both of your girlfriends definitely qualified as gross). They’re just a couple of friends who don’t talk about sexuality or gender or any of that complicated stuff with each other, because they don’t need to. There’s nothing to explain, nothing to worry about, no judgement when they (usually Percy) mention new bedmates or crushes.

And, starting junior year, Grover decided it was his business that Percy’s business included GSA (QSA, Percy, he was getting tired of hearing that) and specifically bringing blue cookies baked by his mom to the GSA (QSA) meetings.

The first time Percy mentions it to his mom (who he hasn’t told about his actual final decision on his sexuality, because he’s only sixteen and what if he changes it?), she lights up as if he had said Paul Blofis was asking after her.

“Blue cookies?” She asks excitedly, and immediately gets up to go rifle through their kitchen to make sure she has everything (later she realizes they don’t have enough butter to make two and a half batches of sugar cookies, so they have to make a ten o’clock run to Walmart for powdered sugar and butter, and then she realizes it’s possible to grab blue sprinkles so they spend twenty minutes laughing and joking in the food aisle of the compressed Walmart while a tired-looking employee gives them the stank eye) after dinner. Percy nods and follows her.

“You don’t mind that it’s for the GSA club, mom?” He asks, carefully as he grabs a mixing bowl from the cupboard.

His mom laughs at that. “Honey, of course not. That would be like me minding Nico or Annabeth coming over.”

Percy sets the bowl down and glances at her. “But you do mind, mom.”

“Yes, when it’s three in the morning on a Tuesday in the middle of October and they aren’t wearing nearly enough clothing-“

Percy blushes. “It was raining when that happened, mom, and nothing ever happened with Nico. I wouldn’t ever. He’s like a-“

“Brother to you?” She finishes. “You have a lot of friends that are like family to you, honey. That’s just how you are.”

Percy shrugs but can’t stop smiling, because she’s his mom and she’s right and she’s always right.

Percy shows up at the clubroom a few minutes after the bell rings, and is surprised to find the room mostly filled with people talking or texting or sitting. He has a huge box of cookies in his bag (only slightly squished, he’d discovered at lunch, roughly two hours ago) and his phone is still at 67%, so he’s kind of optimistic about everything.

The first person to see him, weirdly, is Annabeth, his ex and other best friend. She perks up from where she’s conversing with Piper, and stands to come over to him and hug him. “Could have told me you were coming, seaweed brain.” She huffs into his ear, and if he shivers it’s all her fault.

“I’m friends with Grover, Annabeth. Of course I was coming.” He replies when she’s far enough away not to be breathing on his ear and not to have her hand resting on his lower back, which she _knows_ is sensitive.

“You didn’t come last year.” She crosses her arms. “Even though _I_ told you to come.”

“Yeah, and last year was really tough and I had a lot of problems in school and had to have what’s-his-name tutor me.” Percy shrugs.

“What’s-his-name?” She rolls her eyes. “Percy that was Jason Grace, Thalia’s little brother.”

His eyes widen. “Wait- she was related to him?”

“Yeah. And they’re also both here.”

Percy glances through the room, and yep, they totally both are.

“Crap.” He mumbles, still remembering how awful a student he was for Thalia’s-brother-Jason Grace.

“Language.” Annabeth teases, and he rolls his eyes at her, but then she’s walking away and tossing a “Good luck, go put the cookies on the front desk” over her shoulder.

Percy turns and dodges a very excited Rachel talking to a much less excited Clarisse (how Clarisse would have been persuaded to go, he has no idea, unless it was her idea) to get to that desk, which has a couple other food items on it and is surrounded by Grover, this girl Percy met once through a very confusing stint in girl/boy scouts (don’t ask) whose name may have started with an H, and a really tall skinny girl who Percy remembers hearing rumors about involving her hair, of which there is currently not much. Percy stops two desks away and tries to put the box down without interrupting their conversation, but apparently fails, because Grover is grinning at him and girl-scout H is raising an eyebrow at the lidded box.

“What’s inside?” She asks, and Percy opens it, but doesn’t get a chance to reply before Grover is cutting in.

“This is Percy Jackson, head of the swim team, you know? And his mom makes the best chocolate chip- oh, well, those are her sugar cookies, but they’re also the best.” He tries to snag one, but the blonde girl hits his hand.

“Yes, I know who he is.” Girl Scout replies. “But why are the cookies blue?”

“Inside joke.” Percy manages, cutting Grover off.

The blonde girl hums thoughtfully and turns to Girl Scout. “Reyna, I just remembered. I left something in my car, I’ll be back in a few minutes.” Then she turns and walks out, leaving Percy with Girl Scout whose name definitely doesn’t start with an H and Grover, along with everyone else in the room.

“So, who was she?” Percy asks Grover.

“He.” He, Reyna, and the person behind them all chorus. Then Grover continues, explaining. “He’s transitioning, Percy. Just be chill about it, and he won’t be weird. He’s a bit uptight, but he can make some really funny jokes, even if they sound mean before you know him.”

Percy nods, making a mental note that whatever-his-name-was wasn’t a girl. “So, what’s his name? Grade?” He asks, which is what he meant when he originally asked.

“Octavian, senior.” Reyna replies, tugging out her phone to check it while Grover snags the cookie he’d been eying. “He’s the treasurer and suck-up of the club. He knows the principal personally, I think, and can get us anything we need. He’s helpful.”

“And he’s a bit hard to get used to, but he’s a great speaker and will probably do a lot of the technical information parts, because he’s like a white Morgan Freeman when you get him talking, dude.” Grover’s words tumble from his mouth as if he’d swallowed his brain-to-mouth filter along with the cookie.

Percy nods and reaches forwards to snag a cookie of his own, because he’s only had three (four, if he’s telling the truth) today and he wants atleast one more before the best cookies ever are mugged and devoured. The box, only having been open for about two minutes, is already attracting curious glances and hungry sniffs as people wander closer.

Grover grabs one more before Reyna gives him a look that makes him pout as he eats it and not reach for another. Then she turns her gaze, but not the look, on Percy, and adds a smile to it. “Thank you for bringing them. Atleast now you’re not trying popcorn.”

And Percy blushes because he’d hoped she wouldn’t bring it up, and Grover looks at him curiously because, oh yeah, he wasn’t actually there for that, which is a weird thought but not a bad one, because Grover was here for so much that most of their sleepovers are starting to become less babbling and embarrassing stories and more playing of video games, which is frustrating because Percy so misses the embarrassing stories about Grover and their mutual friends that would sometimes make him laugh so hard that he nearly peed himself.

Percy backs up, fully intending not to even _acknowledge_ the worst three hours of his seventh grade life. He turns and finds himself face-to-forehead with someone else, a certain gigantic nerd who’s tiny and always wears clothing too big for him.

“Nico?” Percy asks, and Nico blinks up at him owlishly, as if he can’t actually believe that Percy is in front of him in the G(Q)SA meeting.

“Reyna made me.” Is all he manages after a minute, and Percy shrugs. “Grover made me.” He replies, and they both do the same kind-of-nervous laughter that they do when it’s awkward and they want to say something better but don’t know what.

Nico jerks a thumb at the table where Percy just came from. “Reyna keeps texting me, I can feel her buzzing holes in my pocket.”

“Atleast it’s not her eyes, I feel like they can literally melt metal.” Percy whispers, and Nico snorts.

“Don’t let her hear you say that,” He smiles at Percy. “She might practice on you.” Then he dodges around Percy and Percy steps forwards into where Nico was a few seconds ago, eyes widening with surprise before he realizes that yeah, Nico _was_ joking like a normal person and not being too serious like being in high school had made him.

Percy manages to find enough time to check his phone and wander to a less-trafficked part of the classroom, and ends up avoiding conversation until the meeting starts, which is amazing.

Reyna, Grover, Octavian, and the teacher (Percy doesn’t know who it is) are up at the front of the room, and Reyna starts the meeting- well, tries to start the meeting, and ends up waiting for a long minute for the applause and hoots to subside.

“Welcome to this year’s first Queer-Straight Alliance meeting, more commonly known as the QSA.” She opens. “There are a lot of familiar faces and a lot of unfamiliar ones, so I will introduce myself, but I’ll keep it short. My name is Reyna, I’m a junior, and this is my second year being President of the club. You don’t have to say why you’re here, but it would be very helpful if you would write your name and grade on the sheet that Grover is going to mention.” She smiles. “And, just so that we’re clear this is a judgement free environment, unless you’re an asshole, in which case the door is that way,” She gestures to her left with one hand. “And if you’re unruly and obnoxious, the window is that way.” She gestures to her right with the other, drawing laughter from the crowd. It’s easy to see why she’s the president.

“This club has various things that it does, but because we’d rather not bore you on the very first meeting, today will be more of a day for you all to talk and get to know each other. Now, I’ll give the floor to my Secretary for a moment.” She steps to the side and back, and Grover stands up, smiling at everyone. He’s another clear favorite, drawing more clapping and yelling from various people, including Percy and excluding Thalia’s-brother-Jason, who seems to be more busy having a heated staring contest with Reyna.

“Okay, I’ll keep this super short, because we all know who we came here to listen to…” Grover starts, steepling his fingers in front of him and batting his eyelashes like a love-struck teenage girl in movies. There are various hoots from seasoned club-members, and Percy catches the girl next to him mumbling about Octavian’s voice.

“But, my name’s Grover, I’m your secretary, and I’ll send out a clipboard and a cool gel pen so you can write your name and document that, yeah, you totally showed up to this awesome club.” Percy wonders if Grover’s laying it on a bit thick, but he’s the one who’s leading the crowd at the minute, so Percy guesses it’s okay.

“Now, the desk up here has a bunch of cool food and drink on it, and it all looks really amazing, but we have to wait until our treasurer is done talking to grab some stuff. Thanks to everyone who brought something, you’re almost as awesome as hearing him,” Grover jerks his thumb at Octavian. “Talk. Okay, I think I’m done up here?” He glances at Reyna, but she shakes her head. “Oh, yeah, right. Before you leave, I don’t care when you mug me for it, there’s a paper I need to give you. It has more information, like club dates and events and stuff. We worked really hard on this guys, and it’s for you so don’t leave without it, okay?” There’s a chorus of okays, and Grover nods and sits back down.

Finally, Octavian, apparently the main attraction, steps forward. There are no hoots or applause, just a long wolf whistle from the latino Percy heard is the only person at their school to already have a scholarship landed for mechanical engineering at wherever-the-hell he wants to go. It’s eerie, how silent the mass of G(Q)SA goers are, until Octavian starts talking.

“My name is Octavian and I am the club treasurer.” He starts, head held high and posture impeccable. “I am also one of the few remaining people who was present for the original QSA meeting, and if I do say so myself, we have gotten much larger and much better organized since then, with plenty of help from me.” The teacher chuckles behind him, apparently having been privy to the chaos.

“Reyna is the Leader and the backbone of the club, and if you have any problems or ideas, it is best you go to her or Grover. We have a permanent group conversation” That Percy didn’t know about until just now “That we constantly use to keep each other updated on issues. When you fill out the sign in sheet on Grover’s clipboard, please do consider putting your phone number or email on there, because it makes our lives so much easier, and the easier our lives are, the better club gets. This has been proven not once, not twice, but in all of the past three years, so if we could start the year off easy, imagine how much better the club could get by the end of this year.” He pauses long enough for people to think about it, because while the beginning of the club is pretty wordy, it’s been fun so far.

“I won’t go on too much longer,” He continues, and there are a couple sad noises from the crowd. “But only because the drinks are getting warm and the food is getting cold. I will be much busier this year than in years past, so I will not be giving out my personal number to anyone new.” There are smirks from those same seasoned club members, and Percy envies them. “This will be my last year in the club, so please, let’s make it a good one.” He smiles, but it isn’t a big smile, it’s a polite little smile that seems like it’s trying not to turn into a nostalgic-blues smile. Then he steps back, and the magic of his speech wears off enough that people are no longer silent.

“He’s leaving?” Percy hears the same girl who he’d heard whispering earlier whine. The guy she’s talking to nods. “Duh, he’s a senior. What else would he do? Fail and spend the rest of his life being a club leader in high school?”

Percy heads for Grover, up in the front near the windows and handing the clipboard to one of the Stolls, Percy isn’t sure which, but he can’t see the other one so he doesn’t want to try to address him by name.

Grover, seeing Percy, grins and fist bumps him. “Hey? Hey? How did you like it, man?”

Percy laughs. “It’s awesome, dude. Really. You put a lot of hard work into this, didn’t you?”

The Stoll behind Percy snorts and says “No shit”, and Percy doesn’t know what else to do other than to ignore him.

Grover nods. “Yeah, man, it’s been great. I only came onto the club last year, but it’s been amazing. And Octavian? Dude, he’s been the biggest help of all, I don’t know who’s going to replace him when he graduates.”

“And that’s this year.” Percy glances over at where Octavian’s standing, having a conversation with Reyna. “Glad I actually came.”

Grover shrugs. “Eh, if you’d shown up last year you wouldn’t have gotten to see how great it’s become since. I am glad you got to be in it before Octavian left, because he’s kind of great at everything dealing with adults, responsibility, and time-management.”

Percy nods. “He sounds like it- and is his voice always that smooth?”

Grover shakes his head. “No, he used to have a lot of trouble with his voice, especially during the transition. But he was always a great speaker, it’s just gotten less… Mischa Barton and more Morgan Freeman lately.” 

Percy vaguely remembers Mischa Barton’s voice from when Grover tried to get into the OC and failed, and now his eyebrows rise. “Wait, seriously? He sounded like that?”

Grover nods excitedly. “Yeah, man, it was great.”

Percy imagines it, and finds that he can. “Sort of wishing I’d shown up then, too.”

Grover’s excited head nodding turns into a long pause and then a headshake. “No, man, you don’t. It got pretty bad there for a while, we almost fell apart. Octavian, Reyna, and I had to help him through a lot of stuff.”

Percy blinks. “Wait, man, was that when you didn’t hang out with me for two months and usually replied to texts with ‘sorry, I’m busy’ and then randomly showed up at my house and didn’t leave for a week?”

Grover blinks back at him, then nods again. “Yeah. Reyna stayed over at his house a lot to help, and I was there pretty much 24/7. They were both friends with Jason, but Jason was really busy with sports and tutoring last year, so he couldn’t help out. Reyna’s still pissed about that.”

Percy bit his lip. “Wait. Thalia’s-brother-Jason?”

“Yeah. Jason Grace.”

“Shit, Grove, that was _my_ tutor last year.”

Grover shook his head. “You weren’t the only person he tutored, Perce, chill. He had a lot going on, and I get not wanting to abandon all that, and Octavian forgave him, it’s just Reyna that’s annoyed at him.”

“I still feel guilty, man. I was a crap student.” Percy rubs the back of his neck.

“It’s cool man, he doesn’t hold grudges. There’s just trouble in paradise between them- they and Octavian have been friends forever. I’m still getting used to being friends with them and learning everything. It’s like you, me and Annabeth.”

Percy’s eyebrows went up. “Really?”

“Yeah.” Grover laughs. “But, man, don’t spend all your time talking to me, okay? Go out and mingle.” Grover shoos Percy away.

Percy heads for the front desk to grab a cup of blue Hawaiian punch (he’d like to personally kiss whoever had brought it, though a blue cherry coke would have been even better). Octavian and the latino who’d wolf whistled before are talking now and standing there, but Percy doesn’t know what to say to either of them, so he tries to silently snag the cup, but fails, yet again. What is it with people at this club and constantly roping more people into their conversations, anyways?

“Percy?” He hears behind him, and he turns to see who it is, and is surprised to see Luke Castellan.

Percy holds out a fist for Luke to bump, but the senior hugs him instead. “Hey, man, what’s up?” He asks when Luke pulls back.

“Nothing much, just really surprised to see you here. Never pegged you as the type who’d actually be able to make time for a club that didn’t have water in it.” He reaches over to grab one of Percy’s mom’s cookies. “I mean, we did have that pool party at the end of last year, but that was a onetime thing.”

“Well, even the idea of a pool attracts me, Luke, don’t you remember the time I went to another state because I heard there was a cool set of hot springs?”

Luke rolls his eyes. “I drove for two and a half hours listening to Grover’s music and when we got there, all you and Annabeh did was make out. Two hour drive for you to make out in a lukewarm kiddy pool.”

Percy shrugged. “What can I say?”

“Maybe apologize? I got in huge trouble with my dad-“

Percy nodded. “Oh, yeah, weren’t you staying with him?”

Luke nods back at him. “Yeah.”

Percy sips the Hawaiian punch. “Sorry, dude.”

Luke nods back. “It’s okay. Oh, yeah, can I get your number again?” He digs into his pocket with the hand not preoccupied with the cookie that he’s yet to take a bite out of and pulls out a significantly less battered phone than Percy remembered. “The old one finally broke and Dad got me a new one.”

Percy nods, pulling his phone out. “Same number?”

“No, it changed.” Luke says, and lists it off when Percy has the contacts open on his own phone. Then he texts Luke, and Luke smiles at him. “Cool. Are you planning on coming every club?”

Percy shrugs. “Probably? Seems cool. Plus they’re really great at talking, especially-“

“Me?” Octavian interrupts, and Percy feels the back of his neck and the tips of his ears heat up as he turns to look at the other senior.

“Uh, yeah. Sorry, didn’t know you were listening?” Percy smiles, and Octavian laughs softly.

“It’s hard not to, you were close and loud and I’ve heard enough about you to be interested.”

The blush worsens and starts to creep up Percy’s cheeks. “Really?”

“Yes. Grover, Annabeth, Jason. Even Reyna has a few stories about you.”

Yep, if Percy wasn’t blushing before, he definitely was now. “Oh my gods I thought she said she wasn’t going to ever tell anyone about that!” He breathes out, running a hand through his hair. “I bet she didn’t even mention the embarrassing part about _her_!”

“If you continue that train of thought,” Octavian says quickly, “She will tell everyone. As it is, only I know. She told Jason and I the embarrassing part about herself, then told just me about what happened with you. Alright?”

Percy huffs, but nods. “Alright. Fine. As long as she didn’t tell _anyone_ else.”

“She didn’t.” Octavian reaches out for a chip from the table. “Alright?” His eyes are intense and trained on Percy, and nodding is the only course of action that feels correct. Octavian finally smiles at that. “Good. Now we can have conversations normally. Grover told me that you were interested in coming?”

Percy shrugs. “Yes and no? I knew he became secretary halfway through last year when the old one transferred, and he mentioned every now and then that he was working on something for the club, but he never actually talked to me about the club or what it did… It was more of a ‘just come, man, you’ll love it’ type thing from him.” Percy sips the Hawaiian punch, noticing finally that Octavian and he had both moved away from the table and are standing much closer to the wall and much farther from the various people.

Octavian snorts and shakes his head, crossing his arms. “Leave it to Grover to try to recruit people without telling them what he’s recruiting them for.” He pulls one hand out and gestures with it. “Basically, it starts out like this. We lure in the people with food, then we scare off the homophobic pranksters with an incredibly explicit set of rules. Then, when we’re sure that we’re safe from them, and they try to invade every year, we start the fun stuff.” Octavian smiles and looks out at the room for a second, and it’s a much less guarded smile. “We play games, we tell stories, we let each other know we’re here for each other, we organize events and dances and just… Little things. Anything to help the population of this school become less ignorant.” He pauses and turns to look right at Percy again, pale blue eyes intense under the crappy lighting. “I remember seeing you at the parade last year, you were in the float in front of ours, and you kept looking behind you instead of at the crowd, who you were supposed to be spraying with water. That’s why I’m talking to you, Jackson. Because I remember you looking almost hopefully behind you, as if you thought we’d stop and let you on if you asked nicely enough.”

**Author's Note:**

> brownie points if you can guess who the "wrong person" is or percy's sexuality


End file.
